On May 16, 2012, at 2:32 PM, Niels de Vos wrote:
> Hello,
>
> in #gluster on Freenode, we discussed a little if GlusterFS is
> allowed in EPEL-6.
>
> The policy that may forbid GlusterFS in EPEL-6:
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/GuidelinesAndPolicies#Policy
> mentions "packages from EPEL should never replace packages from the
> target base distribution - including those on the base distribution
> as well as layered products".
>
> The Red Hat Storage product that includes GlusterFS is like an
> appliance. Customers who buy a subscription get access to a DVD
> download of RHEL-6.2.z (Extended Update Support, EUS) with the
> packages from an additional RHN-ChildChannel. It is not
> possible/intended/supported to use this RHN-ChildChannel without
> installing your system from the "Red Hat Storage" DVD. Therefore this
> RHN-ChildChannel is a little different from other layered products.
>
> The first time a Red Hat product that includes GlusterFS was released
> in November 2011. EPEL-6 already contained the GlusterFS packages.
> The EPEL-policy was not harmed, but now GlusterFS is made available
> by Red Hat, and it is possible to have two sources for GlusterFS (one
> being EPEL-6, the other through the Red Hat Storage ChildChannel).
Three points:

1. RHS is intended to be deployed on special purpose "appliances." In
the storage world people don't use their storage appliances as general
purpose machines; they're dedicated storage machines. Only those who
have an RHS entitlement would/should be allowed to subscribe to the Red
Hat Storage channel, and I believe it would be highly unusual for such a
customer to also subscribe their RHS appliance to other repos, including
the Fedora EPEL repo. Enterprises aren't going to jeopardize their
valuable data by using unsupported configurations.

2. I'm pretty sure it's the case that you can only get RHS updates, e.g.
glusterfs, and nothing else, from the Red Hat Storage channel. Any
regular RHEL or CentOS users who discover this channel, and who ought to
have access to the EPEL repo, only stands to encounter potential
confusion for glusterfs.

3. Niels mentioned it, but I think it merits repeating: GlusterFS has
been shipping EPEL6 RPMs since at least 2010, including GlusterFS-3.2.1
in June 2011. (FYI, RHS started shipping in November 2011 after the
acquisition in October 2011.) It ought to be grandfathered regardless of
any other consideration.

We (as in Red Hat, Fedora Project, and Gluster.org) have been providing
glusterfs RPMs for EPEL6 (and EPEL5) for a long time, and if we stop,
we're taking something away from the community.